LUCAS WALL, Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle |
April 18, 2004

Between 1998 and 2000, nearly 8,000 crashes were recorded along the 7 1/2-mile corridor where Metropolitan Transit Authority light rail trains now travel. Almost 2,000 were on Main and Fannin alone, two streets that make up most of today's rail route.

The pre-rail crash total averaged about 51 incidents per week, or roughly 7 1/2 per day.

Vehicles have collided with trains 35 times since the rail line was completed six months ago, a little more than one collision per week.

"The reality is, the driving public was experiencing these serious collisions before we ever put a different mode of transportation there," said Metro Police Chief Tom Lambert.

The Houston-Galveston Area Council, which closely examined 1999 crash records from the Texas Medical Center, calculated a serious collision rate in that neighborhood of 314 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, 58 percent higher than the Houston regional rate of 199.

"The Medical Center attracts people who are ill or whose minds are totally preoccupied with an injury or illness of someone they know," said Dave Willis, director of the Texas Transportation Institute's Center for Transportation Safety.

Eight of the train/vehicle crashes have occurred in the Texas Medical Center.

A TTI safety assessment done for Metro in March warns that regardless of what steps are taken to improve safety along the rail line: "There will likely still be a large number of collisions in the area due to unfamiliar drivers and high traffic volumes."

While the publicity mostly has surrounded the train crashes, Metro police have kept busy working numerous incidents along the rail corridor that did not involve trains. About 15 cars have driven into the Main Street Square fountain downtown.

Police reports also detail such mayhem as several cars careening off Main Street into adjacent buildings and running into light and utility poles.

One driver ran over pedestrian barricades near Preston Station, and another rolled through flower beds before crashing into the train station at Main Street Square.

"People have gotten accustomed to perhaps not obeying traffic laws the way they should," he said. "We believe it is imperative the traffic laws in this region be better enforced if we are to have a safe system."